‘Brutal attack’: judge sentences man to 18 years after blindfolded, hog-tied victim thrown in dumpster

A Winnipeg man who tossed a bound, injured woman into a metal garbage bin on a cold winter night, fully expecting her to die, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Joey Audy, 36, previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder for the unprovoked attack in December 2023.

“The fact that (the victim) survived is by sheer luck,” provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen said Thursday. “Mr. Audy intended to kill (her).”

“This was a brutal attack on a vulnerable person,” she said. “Mr. Audy… demonstrated his complete disregard for human life.”

Audy, who has a long and violent criminal record, is the last of five people charged in the incident to be dealt with by the court.

According to an agreed statement of facts previously provided to court, the then-26-year-old victim was waiting for a bus at Sargent Avenue and Maryland Street at about 3:30 p.m. when a man she didn’t know approached her and said, “You’re coming with me,” before pulling her onto a departing bus.

He took the victim to a Manitoba Housing complex at 24 Carlton St. and led her to a suite where he said he would give her alcohol and she could use the Wi-Fi. In attendance were apartment residents Lorde Barrios and Misty Bird, as well as Audy, Romeo Miles and Evelyn McKay.

Audy and Miles were members of the same gang and had appeared uninvited, armed with a crowbar and knife for the purpose of “recruiting” Barrios.

The woman used the washroom after she entered the suite, during which time the man who took her there left. When she reappeared, Audy asked her who had taken her there and she mistakenly identified Barrios.

When Barrios denied knowing the victim, Audy accused the victim of being a ‘narc’ or a ‘rat.’

Audy told McKay to search the victim for “wires” and then had the woman place her backpack and jacket in the middle of the room before he punched her in the face, knocking her to the floor.

At Audy’s instruction, McKay and Bird bound the victim with duct tape before Audy shoved her under a bed.

Audy and Miles left the suite, telling Barrios they would return later to “collect” the victim.

“Barrios, Bird and McKay argued over whether to untie the victim but decided to keep her tied up because Audy was going to return and they were fearful of him,” said the agreed statement of facts.

McKay left the apartment shortly before 7 p.m. Around 8 p.m., when Audy had not yet returned, Barrios and Bird untied the victim and took her with them to play VLTs. Barrios gave her $5 to play the machines.

Barrios, Bird and the victim returned to the apartment at 8:40 p.m. Barrios and Bird started using methamphetamine. Audy returned a short time later with another man.

The group drank and used drugs for the next three hours, during which time Audy said he was going to toss the victim in the dumpster and “light her up.”

McKay returned to the suite shortly after midnight, and Audy told her to tie up the victim again. McKay “hog-tied” her with zip ties. Duct tape was placed over her mouth.

Audy stomped on the woman’s head and she was blindfolded before Audy and McKay forced her into a hockey bag and zipped it up.

Audy and McKay took the woman to an elevator, as Audy played music on a portable speaker to “mute (the victim’s) screams.” Once outside, they dragged the bag to a dumpster and Audy threw it inside and closed the lid.

The victim remained quiet for a short period of time and then started screaming for help. About a half-hour later, Barrios went outside and heard the woman screaming. He opened the dumpster lid and told the woman he would be right back. He returned an hour later with Bird and the two took her out of the bag and removed her restraints.

She was taken back to the suite, where she was provided a shower, clothing and food. The next morning, Bird helped her board a bus for the Health Sciences Centre, where staff contacted police.

At a sentencing hearing last spring, the woman, who lives with pre-existing health and cognitive challenges, angrily confronted Audy.

“A man shouldn’t put hands on our women,” she said. “Real men don’t hit women…. Clearly you are not a real man, at all. You have left me fighting for my life every single day since you brutally beat me and attempted (to) murder me.

“I look at my face and see the scars on my bottom lip where you kicked me in the face…. How could you do this to an innocent person? You are a f—-ing monster and you will always be one to me.”

Rusen sentenced Audy to 16 years for the attempted murder and an additional two years for an unrelated robbery five months earlier. Audy was at a McDonald’s restaurant around 8 a.m. when he kicked and punched a security officer and stole his cellphone.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook had recommended Rusen sentence Audy to a total of 10 years in prison, arguing a life of poverty, addictions, family dysfunction, and years in foster care set Audy — who was born to a drug-addicted mother who years later died of an overdose — on a violent path.

“He was born suffering drug withdrawal,” Cook said. “I can’t conceive of a more difficult start in life.”

Rusen said the defence recommendation was “disproportionately low.”

“A strong message of denunciation and deterrence is abundantly required,” she said. “This cannot be achieved with the sentence defence counsel recommends. The disproportionate effect of violence on Indigenous women and girls should inform the sentencing process if there is to be any hope of achieving the fundamental purpose of sentencing.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca